How Pawan Kalyan check-mated Chandrababu Naidu?

TDP boss Chandrababu Naidu appears to have realized that Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan is no political pushover. He is coming to realise that Pawan Kalyan is cleverer than he imagined. Pawan's recent comments in New Delhi on AP politics have put Chandrababu Naidu in deep discomfiture.

After attending the NDA meet in Delhi, Pawan has said that he was all for a TDP-BJP-Jana Sena alliance. This is not exactly music to the TDP these days. The TDP no longer wants an alliance with the BJP as the latter is rooting for the Uniform Civil Code, which is an anathema to the muslims. The muslims play a key role in the Rayalaseema region and the towns of Vijayawada, Nellore and Guntur. Chandrababu clearly does not want to alienate the Muslims at this stage.

Secondly, Pawan Kalyan clearly proclaimed that the people of Andhra Pradesh want to see him as the state's chief minister. This automatically means that Pawan is questioning the candidature of both Chandrababu Naidu and his son Nara Lokesh, who is now on a state-wide padayatra. Inter alia, this means that Pawan wants to be in the driver's seat not passenger's seat in the alliance.

The third important comment that Pawan made was that the future of the alliance would depend on the seat-sharing arrangement. This implies that the Jana Sena would want a larger pie this time. It would not be content with two or three seats, but wants a sizable number of seats in 2024. These three pronouncements mean that the Jana Sena will no longer be willing to play a second fiddle.